Living In A World Without Words
Greetings!
Words are not thoughts. They are expressions of thoughts. If you grew up in France, you would learn to express your thoughts in French. If you grew up in Italy, you would learn to express yourself in Italian. The language you are born into is the first language in which you learn to express yourself and to communicate your thoughts to others.
Now imagine you have thoughts but no words. Your "language" is completely made up of pictures. You can recognize a box of Lucky Charms cereal by the cute little leprechaun on the package, but you cannot express the picture of a leprechaun. You might be able to draw it, but a drawing is a representation of something. It is not an expression of your thoughts.
Now imagine you have a picture in your mind of the Trix rabbit and you want a bowl of Trix cereal, but you have no words to express that. You could draw it -- IF you understood what a pen and paper was for. But if you are a child like my son Whitney, who had no motor skills to control a pen, you can't! There is no way to express your mental image of the Trix rabbit and your desire for a bowl of Trix cereal to another person unless you have a common reference point, and that common reference point is called "language."
Now imagine that the entire world exists only as pictures in your mind. You have no method of distinguishing the image of the Trix rabbit from all the other images in your world -- even your own mother. The Trix rabbit would be just one more common, repetitive image in your world of images.
But at some point, you realize there is something different about your mother. The Trix rabbit doesn't give you food or drink, while the picture you associate as "MOM" has the ability to give you things you want: a toy, pizza, turning on the TV. But the picture that is "MOM" doesn't give you what you want when you want it, and there is no way to know when - if ever - the picture that is "MOM" will give you what you want again.
Unable to express your thoughts to convey your wishes, and unable to understand the world around you, you may withdraw into yourself and babble or sing or wave your hands, or you may scream and bite and throw a tantrum. This is the world of the child with a high visual/low auditory-verbal brain, who is often an extremely intelligent little person. But that visually smart little person has a mind that is racing but no method of communication - no language - to express themselves. They are living in a world where words virtually have no meaning
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As most of you know, I call these strong visual brain people "Mavericks." Mavericks have no concept of "odd behavior" because they have no concept of their effect on anything around them. The worst part is that their lives are filled with frustration because they are thinking and are aware of the world around them but are unable to communicate with that world. They get involved with something important to them and then they are forced to stop. They don't know why. They want something and cannot get it. They don't know why. Their behavior doesn't make sense to us, but to them, it is our world that makes no sense.
This explains the need for routine. Since life without verbal reasoning seems chaotic to the Maverick child, routine helps them develop a sense of security. They can relax somewhat, knowing that at a certain time of day, the same thing is going to happen. It takes some of the unpredictability and fear out of their lives, but it doesn't remove all frustration.
Our reasoning and actions make no sense to highly visual children with no language skills. As a result, their lives are filled with frustration and they react the only way they can - by throwing a fit or withdrawing entirely into themselves. And without intervention and training, their lives become one long silent scream.
If the behaviors above describe your child, I strongly urge you to make an appointment for an evaluation.
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Internet Teleconference and Web Workshop
~ Tuesday, March 30 at 11:30 a.m. EST (Eastern Standard / New York Time) ~
Dr. Florance will offer The 5 Steps of Brain Engineering Web Workshop
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Learn how the Brain pays attention and remembers visually and verbally
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Learn how the Brain uses Executive Function
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Learn why highly visual children have symptoms of many disorders such as PDD, ADD, Aspergers and Autism
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All participants will receive e-book tutorials and a podcast of the workshop
This webinar is free, but seats fill quickly.
Priority seats are offered to parents who have visual thinkers in the family.
To sign up for this workshop REPLY to this email
or email Dr. Florance at braindr@cheriflorance.com with the subject "Workshop"
In your email, please answer the following questions to reserve your spot:
1. Do you think there are visual thinkers in your family? The way to tell is by the types of jobs or hobbies the family members enjoy. Please let us know about Mom, Dad, and Grandparents. Do they have visual jobs or hobbies?
2. Do you have a child who is having trouble at school, socially, behaviorially, or with communication? Let Dr. Florance know some specificis about your child. |
Parent Corner
"He is talking more -- some new vocabulary words and longer sentences!" (Excited parent of Maverick child)
"Last night's homework was different. [My husband] and I were both wondering how we were going to "show" him? To our amazement, [our son] got all the correct answers ALL BY HIMSELF!" (Parent of a 5-year old Maverick)
"Tonight at story time he kept pointing to and saying E, his favorite
letter. He found E in the very tiniest of print of a book we were
looking at. I looked very close and sure enough there was E. When we
drive by billboards and he sees an E, he shouts it out -- E!!!! He also
loves M and tries to flip himself upside down to make it a W, then says
W!!" (Maverick Parent)
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Free Screening
The visual brain is very powerful and because of this overwhelming power, children can have problems with attention, memory, cooperation, motivation and communication. The visual brain can become the enemy of the auditory-verbal brain and cause it to malfunction.
Find out if this is the situation you are facing by scheduling an appointment with my assistant. Just click http://brain-engineering-labs.genbook.com. Choose "Free Telephone Screening" and select a day and time that's open and we will call you. It's as easy as that.
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Brain Friendly Grin:
"Our
first sign of transfer!!!! My husband and I were commenting on [the
spider we found dead in our kitchen] and I said, "Oh, [our son] must
have gotten to it." And from the family room, he piped in, "Yes mommy,
I killed a spider." A complete sentence! We are so joyous to hear a
complete sentence and look forward to hearing more complete sentences!"
(Parent of a 16-year-old Maverick)
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Brain Friendly Groan:
"You should just give up on your child and focus on your other kids. If you keep trying to help your son, your other children will suffer for it." (a Pediatrician)
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Have you experienced one too many groans about your child's speech-language disorder?
Click HERE to schedule your free screening now.
We can then send you materials customized to fit your needs.
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written by Dr. Cheri Florance, Ph.D. with Marrin Gazzaniga
ONLY $5 (including shipping and handling)on amazon.com
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Need more information?
FACEBOOK: Become a Fan and get answers from Dr. Florance herself.
PODCAST: Magnificent Maverick Moments. Listen to even more success stories.
http://itunes.apple.com OR http://ebrainlabs.com/rss
FREE INFORMATION: Receive free e-books when you schedule a Free Screening appointment.
SCHOLARSHIPS: The Scholarships provide interest-free payment plans that are supported, in part, by Brain Engineering Labs. To inquire, click the link below and choose "Scholarship Telephone Interview." http://brain-engineering-labs.genbook.com
ABOUT: Dr. Florance, Ph.D. and Brain Engineering Labs http://www.ebrainlabs.com/about.
ARCHIVES: Missed a previous mailing? No worries. You can read them all at http://archive.constantcontact.com
MORE QUESTIONS? Email or call Tia Zorne at:
TiaZorne@CheriFlorance.com OR 1-866-865-9820 (ext #2)
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Thank you and we look forward to helping you soon.
Cheri Florance, Ph.D.
Brain Engineering Labs
866-865-9820
www.ebrainlabs.com
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